Page 5 of Octane

“Well, obviously,” I reply, shooting him an irritated, sarcastic glare.

He laughs again but says nothing. I’m panicking the longer we go without the elevator starting back up again.

I cannot be afford to be even more late than I already am.

Even if it weren’t for my fear of Daniel, I have a big meeting in a couple hours that I need to prepare for.

“Just hit the call button, someone will respond,” he breaks the silence after a few moments.

I roll my eyes at his nonchalant attitude as he steps beside me, pushing the emergency call button himself. But when I catch a whiff of his cologne, my mouth practically waters. It’s a delectable combination of sandalwood and citrus. Just the right amount to leave it swirling in my nostrils without it overpowering me.

Damn it!

My thoughts provoke anger within me. I don’t have any business being allured or affected by the smell of another man. I don’t need to land myself in that type of trouble. Besides, I’m sure he thinks that I’m just some silly girl in need of saving. Like I’m going to consider him some kind of hero for pushing a button. He doesn’t say anything further, just keeps pressing the button with no response. I give it a few minutes before I lose my patience and step in. I’ll show him exactly what kind of girl I am.

I drop my phone into my purse then place it and my coffee mug down on the floor of the elevator. He moves out of the way to get a better look at what I’m doing, and the smell disappears. I miss it, but I immediately scold myself for my thoughts once again.

I pick up keys so I can use them to pry the doors open. Daddy owns one of the largest construction and real estate firms in the country, so I’ve been on countless building sites with him over the years. I’ve seen workers pry open elevator doors plenty of times. I’m sure I can figure it out.

“What are you doing?” he asks.

“Trying to pry the doors open so we can get out.”

He grabs my attention when another tiny snicker comes out of his mouth.

“You’re just going to... what? Hop out of the elevator?” he asks condescendingly.

“Well, I’m going to try. You’ve pressed the button a bunch of times. No one is answering. Seems you’ve exhausted all of your helpful ideas.”

“Yeah, well I’m sure they’re busy trying to figure out how to get us out of here.”

“You can’t always wait around for someone to save you,” I tell him. “Sometimes you have to save yourself.”

He looks like he wants to say something else but thinks better of it. Or maybe he doesn’t have a good come back. Either way, now that I’ve just told him that I am going tosaveus, I need to figure out how to do it.

Way to go, Sawyer.

Using the mini screwdriver keychain on my keyring, I begin working it in between the doors. For several minutes I try getting them open, all the while suffering painful scrutiny from this… guy… this Penthouse Prick. I can tell that he thinks I’m insane. Like I’ve lost my marbles.

Right now, it feels like I have.

It takes several minutes, but I manage to get the first set of doors open. I’m just as surprised as he is, but I mask it with a smug look and a pop of my eyebrow.

Now that they’re open, I see that we’re stuck between two floors.

Shit.

I crouch as good as I can in a skirt and start wiggling my screwdriver between the two doors on the lower floor. Once I finally manage to get the screwdriver in between them, I shake my hand, relieving some of the pain from the pressure I had to use.

“You should stop before you hurt yourself,” he states.

“Aw, you’re not worried about me, are you?” I ask, turning my attention up toward him.

Just then, the elevator drops slightly, scaring the shit out of us both.

“Shit!” I call out at the same time as he shouts, “Fuck!”

“No, I’m not worried about you,” he admits, gripping the bar connected to the wall of the elevator. “I’m just not looking forward to plummeting to my death from you fiddling around with things.”

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